


Game of Revenge

by AnnaCipactli12



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9141463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaCipactli12/pseuds/AnnaCipactli12
Summary: Arthur's affair with his best friend's wife has cost him his loved ones' reputations, and claimed Elia and Oberyn's life. As he is on the brink of despair he is given an offer he cannot refuse. Intent on taking everything Rhaegar loves, he becomes the thing that men fear.





	

She would go down in history as the great whore. The great prostitute. Her family had entirely abandoned her. Doran, her darling and kind, passive brother Doran, ever the peace maker, had forsaken her for Dorne. Never mind that half of Dorne would have gladly given up their lives to defend their princess’ honor.

Only Oberyn was willing to defend her honor. Rhaegar gave them his word that he would honor the results of the trial of combat but he turned out to be worse than his father when he sent Oberyn to the prison, just below her.

“You promised!” _My sweet, little girl Rhaenys screamed, angry that her father, the man who had promised to love and protect her until the end of times was willing to go to these lengths to get rid of her mother._

Elia dropped to her knees and begged Rhaegar to spare her brother. “I will do anything. Send me back to Dorne, make me walk barefoot and naked and behead me like you threatened to before, I don’t care. But please, spare my brother. He and I have always been friends. If he dies, I die.”

For a moment it looked as if the old Rhaegar was back. He smiled at her then at Oberyn but when he focused his eyes back on her, he saw disgust in them again. He cruelly smirked at her and told her: “My dear, why would I forgive an incestuous whore who has been fucking with the sword of morning, her brother and gods knows who else?”

“No, that is not true! Oberyn and I have never lay together. I love my brother! We have been true to you!”

“Aye, you have been true to me. You gave me one son who died not long after my second spouse Lyanna here gave me another. One who will live up to take after my throne after you are gone.”

“You cannot be serious! I loved you. I let you whore around with this wolf bitch and what did I get in return? I was nearly raped. My daughter nearly got raped too and my boy, my poor boy got so sick that he didn’t live to be three!”

“And whose fault is that? I told you of the secret passages. I asked the kingsguard to take Aegon and Rhaenys but oh no, you had to refuse. You had to prove to everyone that you are the victim. Poor, sweet Elia who is so frail, she can’t defend herself.”

“I was sweet and I was frail but my heart stopped beating the moment you came with her and her son and made him Prince of Dragonstone despite the fact he wasn’t your eldest son. I had to bow down and kiss his baby fingers while my son lay in his crib coughing blood. I … lost myself Rhaegar!”

“You lost yourself? What about me, woman? How do you think I feel finding out my wife was screwing around with my kingsguard?”

“As I felt when you screwed around with your Northern whore.” She rebuked.

The arena became silent. **_Do it. Do it. Just do it and I will kill you_**. Oberyn’s eyes screamed.  
Elia knew then that she was lost. She barely registered the slap. She clutched her cheek and screamed at him “Gods damn you!” and then at **_her_**. “Gods damn you too!”

The Northern whore just stood there, motionless. Smiling, letting crocodile tears fall down her crystalline blue eyes. _She is good, really good_. Beauty, charm and savage wits. It was no wonder why Rhaegar fell for her. But she was much better. A wolf could never outshine the sun. They were wild, unpredictable creatures with ice in their veins. She was a Dornish woman. She had fire in her veins that could melt down any ice, and a snake whose bite was deadlier than any sword.

She felt strong hands on her and saw her brother. He gave her a sympathetic glance. _It is over._ His eyes said. For the first time, she had seen defeat in Oberyn’s eyes.

His paramour Ellaria was begging the King for mercy. _Poor creature. Poor miserable creature. Doesn't she know that Rhaegar will never look a bastard in the eye?_

Oberyn called Ellaria. The Sand woman turned to her lover and begged him. “Do not leave me alone in this world.”

“Never.” Oberyn said then turned to Rhaegar who knowing what was on his mind, nodded.  
“When the sun sets … and it rises … you will see me again.” Oberyn promised. Their lips touched and they embraced each other one last time.

Ellaria screamed when he was taken away. “We will see each other again!” Oberyn shouted but his reassurances were not enough for Ellaria. Her humanity was taken away from her later that day when he was pronounced guilty of incest and treason along with her, in a sham of a trial at the Red Keep.

She watched as the Sand woman screamed and screamed until her screams were drowned by crows of joy from the crowd as Oberyn was beheaded by Ser Illyn Payne.

Elia screamed too. Not just for Oberyn, but for the rest of her family. Her remaining brother and his son wouldn’t last long on the throne _. Ellaria will see to that_. That woman would become the spirit of vengeance that her House yearned for. With her eldest daughter and Oberyn’s eldest daughters by his previous mistresses, they would wreak havoc on King’s Landing and the rest of Westeros. They would poison her niece, Arianne, against Doran and staged a coup that would make her the Queen of a nation, hungry for revenge.

_Too bad, I won’t be there to see it._

After her tears dried up, she looked down at her stomach. Rhaegar was truly cruel. Instead of sentencing her to death right away, he wanted to wait until she delivered her bastard child so she’d see everything she loved taken away from her.

 _I shouldn’t bring you into this world._ She wished she had gotten rid of it when she had the chance. She and Arthur would have been able to carry on with their affair, and Rhaenys wouldn’t have to worry about being an orphan.

 _My Rhaenys._ What sort of life awaited her? She had been declared illegitimate by the Small Council. Instead of being called Princess, she was now called Lady Rhaenys, the King’s daughter. It was better than nothing. Royal bastards were always looked upon with favor. She would still get to dance, and sing her songs, and recite from her poems and enjoy her outdoor activities as she used to. But that wasn’t enough for Elia. Her daughter was a Princess. She deserved the same treatment as that boy born from that Northern whore.

 _My sweet Rhaenys, I hope you have the strength and courage of your ancestors and your uncle to survive your father’s treacherous court_. Before she had been taken away from her, she told her daughter never to be afraid of holding her ground, even in front of stronger men like her father. “You are a Princess, daughter of a King and a Princess of Dorne. You have fire and venom in your veins.”

She would never get to see her daughter grow or see her chase down by boys, or the other way around.

_Neither will I see this child inside me grown._

* * *

Arthur was nowhere to be found. Rhaegar had his men search the entire city. The captain told him it was impossible to have escaped the Tower unless he knew of the secret passages.

Rhaegar cursed himself. Of course! He had told him all about it a year ago during the peasants’ revolt while his wives and children were housed there for sanctuary. _“If something were to happen to me, I want you to take my family as far away from here as you can. There is a passage you can use that will take you to the harbor. From there you can head North or South and regroup with our royal army.”_

He was the first King in Westeros history to create an army. A real royal army, stronger and better trained than any other in the kingdom.

Despite Arthur’s intimate knowledge of the tower, something didn’t add up. He asked who was on duty that day. They were questioned by his master of whisperers, Varys. All of them gave the same answer. Arthur was heavily guarded. There was no way he could have disappeared out of thin air just like that.

Was it magic? If so, what kind of magic? He had been experimenting with all kinds and so far, that got him nowhere. Lyanna entertained him with stories of the children of the Forest and the Great Others who had been created by them to eliminate the threat of Men, but instead turned out to be a bigger threat. The children of the forest allied with their enemies and erected a wall that kept the Great Others and their army of White Walkers separated from their realms. Rhaegar believed the stories because when he had welcomed a red priestess to his realm, he had looked into the flames and seen them. It was her who convinced him to name Jon the Prince of Dragonstone. “ _He is the prince that was promised.”_ She told him.

He ordered her to find where Arthur was in her flames. His red priestess tried her best but came up with nothing. The only thing her flames continued to show her was Jon as a grown man, surrounded by the skulls and bones of her enemies, seated on a throne of gold with a red wolf-bird hybrid.

Rhaegar told Varys to interrogate his guards again. Arthur had to be found no matter what the cost!

* * *

The time came for Elia to face her execution. She had given birth to twin boys. Before she could name them, they were taken away from her and sent to the Red Keep. “They will be well taken care of.” She was promised by Ser Barristan, the new captain of the Kings’ guard.

Elia smiled at him and thanked him for his years of service. Ser Barristan confessed he wanted to hate her at first but found himself unable to. “You are a far better lady than she is.” He told her as the two made their way to the platform. “I will pray for you … Princess.”

“Thank you, Ser Barristan. The seven kingdoms are truly lucky to have men of honor like you.” She said. Unlike me.

With a great effort, she got on her knees. She did not have the strength to remain on her two feet. Her labor had weakened her. Her health had always been delicate, but this pregnancy had nearly killed her.

How ironic. She thought, allowing herself to smile at her mental joke. Even if Rhaegar were to spare me, I’d still die.

“Good Westerosi people …” She started. “I have come before you as a sinner. To die according to the Gods’ law and the King’s law …”

Withholding her tears, she added: “There was never a gentler and just lord as him and for his great mercy, I ask that you pray for me and continue to obey the King and pray for His Grace’s good health and his children.”

Moved by her speech, everyone got down on their knees and bowed their heads down in deep prayer.

The executioner was not Ser Illyn Payne but the Warden of the North, Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell. He was anxious to get this over with. He didn’t want to feel sympathy for this woman but like Ser Barristan, he was moved by her suffering.

 _She was born to be a Queen._ He wished that she and his sister didn’t have to be enemies. The two had a lot in common. But Lyanna has a habit of seeing those who stand in her way as inferior.

He recited the oaths his father and his father before him had taught him. I must be strong. The Starks were as cold and unyielding as the land they were born into. No matter how much this woman had suffered, she was still a traitor and as the King’s subject, he had a job to do.

It took only one stroke. In one second, it was all over. The jeers she had received when Ser Barristan escorted her out of the Tower turned into cries of sorrow.

A noble lady was dead, and another one couldn’t wait to tell her husband that she was pregnant with his second son.

Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

**~o~**

Arthur hated Rhaegar. He never thought the day would come when his best friend would turn into his greatest enemy. He had soiled his white cloak the minute he became his family’s overlord’s sister and his best friend’s wife lover but gods damn him, he loved her. And he hated seeing how she was treated by his prince.

“The people’s prince.” He said and afterwards laughed out loud. People around him gave him odd stared but after a while they stopped minding him. Who cared about another weird traveler.

 _That is all I am to them. Another poor bloke who has had a run with bad luck._ Braavos was filled with these people. When he stepped into the House of Black and White, the temple of the many-faced God, he asked his gods for forgiveness. He never meant to drag Elia into this mess, or strip his family of their honors.

“We can help you.” The Waif, as the pale girl called herself, told him but he shook his head.

“No.” He told her. “I have enough demons of my own. I have no need of more.” And before she could reply, he turned around and left.

“Elia.” Her name escaped his lips when he slept that day, on a dirty Inn. He dreamed of the life the two could have had if they had only heeded Varys’ warning and escaped to Essos.

 _We didn’t listen._ His dream-self thought. Each scene was a window into his deepest desires. One showed Elia nursing their twin sons. One of them named Oberyn after her brother and another Arthur after him.

 _How will history remember us_? The day after, he went to the House of Black and White again. He didn’t know what it was, but _something_ was guiding him to that forbidden place.

Years passed and his face was replaced by another one. His stoicism strengthened. So did his resolve and his desire for revenge.

He heard news from the merchants and his spies that the King had died and in his place, his Queen ruled as Regent. The Queen, or as some called her, the mad queen was becoming as paranoid as her in-laws. Fearful that Viserys and Daenerys could steal her crown, she had exiled them. Viserys had given his sister as a bride to the Dothraki horde. Her husband murdered him after he threatened her life and the life of her unborn child.

The man smirked. The wheels of fate were turning. Not long after Daenerys “Stormborn” Targaryen, named after the stormy night she was born, listened to a witch who had been raped countless times by her husband’s Dothraki army, she miscarried her child and her husband was left as a vegetable. In her grief she murdered him and then offered his dead body and the witch as a sacrifice. Blood magic killed her baby and left her husband as a fool, blood magic could help her now. It did. Three dragons as the three dragons in her banner.

Overnight, the puny little princess, the girl who had been used and abused by her sister-in-law and her brothers, had become a celebrity and a strong contender for the Iron Throne.

The man had big plans for her. She and Jon Jaeherys Targaryen would ally themselves at one point against the latter’s mother’s mad reign and the Great Others beyond the wall (whose army was growing), then they’d marry and reign.

 _For a while_ …

People loved their heroes, especially those endowed with magical gifts and magical creatures such as dragons. But what people loved the most were martyrs and Jon and Daenerys would become the greatest martyrs in Westeros history.

* * *

Everything that he and Varys had plotted for, had come to pass. Petyr Baelish, Littlefinger had proven a tougher contender but in the end, he wasn’t strong enough to withstand the strongest forces of nature which drove them: passion.

It was passion that made him disregard his sacred vows. It was passion that begotten his two sons. The only heirs to the House of Dayne of Starfall of Dorne. And it was passion that moved Varys, a member of one of the bastard descendants of Aegon IV “the Unworthy” and him, Ser Arthur Dayne or as he now called himself, Jaquen Hagar, manipulate and kill the Waif and countless others into doing his bidding.

In the end, it was all worth it. To see Jon Targaryen driven to near madness after he was forced to kill his mother, and was sent to the North to rule with his cousin Sansa as his bride, and the poor Daenerys “Stormborn” Targaryen, miserable with no husband or heir to give her kingdom.

The crown was passed to Rhaenys.

“I present to you, Rhaenys, the Fist of her name. Protector of the Realm. Queen of the Andals and the First Men. Long May she Reign!” The High Septon, formerly known as the High Sparrow, a man as low as those he served who had been brought to heel by Rhaenys’ strong, fiery nature and her dark angels, cried.

Everyone cried back in unison “Long may she reign!”

Whereas Daenerys’ short reign was dark, hers was bright.

The man took off his face, went back to Braavos and killed the remaining assassins. The temple was burned as well. There was no need of it anymore. He was Arthur Dayne once again. His oldest son was married to Princess Arianne, while his younger son was made Lord of Starfall.

House Martell thus was no more. Although Arianne refused to give up her name, in the end, she proved to be a slave to passion just like any other woman, and yielded to her husband’s request. Their first child, a girl was given the last name “Dayne”.

 _My seed_. Dayne thought. _My vengeance_. He walked out of the burning temple and boarded a ship. He didn’t care where it would lead him. _Anywhere but here_. His duty done, he had no more desire to relive his memories or reopen his wounds by staying in Westeros or Essos. He would travel to the ends of the world, having adventures. Fighting and dreaming until he was no more. And when the day came that the Stranger claimed him, he would whisper her name “Elia.”  


End file.
